This is quite amusing as Yana Toboso, the author of this manga, also known as Kuroshitsuji, felt like she didn't want to preach, but she finds herself very annoyed when fans write her something in the lines of: "I read them (the manga) from ROMs I borrowed from a friend. LOL", or"I found and watched all of them (the anime) on an overseas video site!", or
"I became a fan with the second season, and then I watched the entire first season on an overseas video site. lol It was very amusing!"
For Toboso, downloading illegal copies of the Black Butler manga and its anime adaptation "is the same as shoplifting or leaving a restaurant without paying the bill.(...) we creators and voice actors will not eat; this is no joke, we will starve and die. This is not 'lol.'"
She then added that this goes against the Law of Equivalent Exchange, and that if this trend continued, she wouldn't have a job anymore. "Unauthorized videos + downloads are wrong, absolutely!"
Could she be overreacting or does she have a point? If I put myself in her position, I find that I would be pretty F**cking pissed if too many people just downloaded my work like that, but then again, I would also be campaigning for people to support and buy my work.
After all, it's not like everyone can afford money to simply buy a book when they need to eat or pay the rent.
I know for a fact I can't pay $300 to have a legal Windows 7, so that's why I downloaded it, so that'd be a matter of each one's conscience, I guess.